Vicki DeLaCruz left last Wednesday night’s District 97 school board meeting at Holmes Elementary School in tears.
The mother with one first-grader at Hatch was distraught at the Board of Education’s decision to eliminate a teacher from her child’s school as part of its budget cuts to trim $719,000 from the district’s Education Fund this year. That amount comes in a little over the $645,000 minimum the board set to cut from the budget.
Irving and Longfellow Schools will also lose one teacher each. The reduction in teachers, some board members said, will level out classroom size to 19.5-21.5 at all schools. Other staff reductions included one nurse at Percy Julian Middle School, central office personnel and lunchroom staff at all district schools.
The board voted March 8 to approve the cuts in a 5-2 vote. The lone no votes were from board members Peter Barber and Sharon Patchak-Layman.
Prior to voting, board members discussed the recommendations during the meeting held inside Holmes’ auditorium to accommodate the nearly 100 parents, staff and faculty in attendance. As members grew closer to a vote at around 10:30 that evening, and with some in the audience having left since the meeting started nearly three hours earlier, sighs and sobs could be heard from audience.
Once the vote was taken, many left quite and somber while others visibly angry.
“I think they should have taken more time to consider other options, said DeLaCruz, with tears in her eyes. “I don’t think they’re listening to parents’ concerns and it sounds like they’re not listening to teachers’ concerns either.”
The board approved the controversial resolution amid an outpouring of opposition from parents and teachers in the district. The district expects to save $126,000, according to its own budget estimates, from the teacher cuts.
One by one, parents addressed the board during public comments that lasted more than an hour.
Jamie Pack, a Hatch Parent: “One teacher may not sound like much to you but it means a great deal to us. Many of us moved to Oak Park because of the quality of the schools and education. What you are proposing will undermine that very foundation.”
Scott Fortman, a parent of two Hatch kids: “Anything could be done except teacher cuts. I know you don’t want to be the cause of the district going backward.”
Gail Fisher, a parent of a third- and fifth-grader at Irving: “I just don’t understand the timing of the decision. You’re proposing cutting teachers but you’re delaying cuts to programs until after the strategic planning process. It’s doesn’t make sense.”
Others stood up and offered alternatives, such as eliminating the Multicultural Center, notwithstanding the district’s commitment to diversity, they argued. But some funding for the center is provided by the village.
Some said they would be willing to give up certain extra-curriculars such as Spanish, and urged the district to cut more from the central office. But Supt. Constance Collins in her remarks before the vote noted significant cuts made in administration already, including more than $170,000 cut in the 2002-03 school year and more than $800,000 made in professional, support and certified staff reduction in 2003-04.
“The question may be asked, ‘Can we find additional cuts at the central office?’ No we can’t. ‘Are we top-heavy at administration?’ No we aren’t,'” said Collins. “The district began cuts in the right place, away from the classrooms. These [current recommendations] are not optional, but necessary.”
Jim Gates and Angela Bolden, president and vice president of the Oak Park Teachers Association, asked the board during their public comments to delay the vote until its next meeting on March 22, asking members to meet with the OPTA to discuss the recommendations and to find alternatives.
The teachers facing job losses at the three schools are required to receive 60 days’ notice, Gates said, allowing the board to postpone a vote before the school year is out.
Board member Sharon Patchak-Layman offered a motion to delay the vote for week, seconded by Barber. The motion failed in a 4-3 vote, with member Dan Burke casting a yes vote.
Collins said the district met with members of the teachers’ association over their concerns, adding that those concerns can be addressed in the strategic planning process.
But that move further angered parents.
“I’m disappointed that they didn’t take the considerations and suggestions of Sharon a little bit more seriously,” said Cassandra Hutchinson, mother of a fifth-grader at Hatch and a freshman at OPRF. “To go ahead and pass this resolution without meeting further with the OPTA as well as the community; I don’t think two weeks would have hurt them considering the ramifications of this decision.”
Some board members talked about those ramifications before taking the vote.
“We wrestle with the issues that have come before us and we agonize over them,” said board President Carolyn Newberry Schwartz. “We have listened to the people who have come before us and we value the comments that have been made. I don’t think that any of us anticipated that a $645,000 reduction would generate the level of concern and pain across the district.”
“We’re taking this so seriously,” said board member Julie Blankemeier. “We so respect the group that is here. But we’re trying to put in our oversight on how it’s going to affect the whole community.”
Board member Peter Barber, who voted against the cuts, offered a motion to amend to the resolution, adjusting the “Elementary Staffing” item on the measure to reflect a loss of one teacher at Hatch, lowering the cost savings to $42,000. The motion failed, with no other board member agreeing to the motion.
Some parents were also upset that the cuts are coming from the district’s East Side schools, where mostly low-income families live.
“I don’t think its right to take resources away from the students that need it the most who come from lower-income families,” said DeLaCruz. “Not all class sizes are created equal. There has to be more fat that you can cut out of the budget elsewhere.”
CONTACT: tdean@wjinc.com
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The Oak Park Elementary School District 97 Board of Education’s decision last week to eliminate teachers from Irving, Hatch and Longfellow elementary schools?#34;among other budget cuts to its Education Fund?#34;caused a flurry of emotions from parents.
Many who read about the board’s decisions on WednesdayJournalOnline.com voiced their concerns on our reader forum online. Here are some of the comments, edited for space, followed by more comments from parents and board members at last week’s meeting.
“A difficult decision but it sounds like the right one. I would have liked to see more cuts in administration as well. The board should be commended for having the courage to see this through.”
Mary Ellen Eads
“My heart-felt thanks to Sharon Patchak-Layman and Peter Barber for valuing classroom instruction in our schools. Five members of the D97 board have made an unforgivable error in failing to listen to the people who elected them in the first place. Oak Park voters are not the forgetful sort.”
Melissa Elsmo
“Having grown up in Oak Park, I am a product of District 97 schools. Now, with children of my own in District 97, I have chosen to give them the opportunity to reap the benefits of a quality school system like I did, or so I thought. I can’t remember if we had extra programs when I was young, but I can for sure tell you who my fourth grade teacher was, and how the teacher I had in fifth grade inspired me, and about how much I looked up to my second grade teacher. To this day, I haven’t forgotten these people, why has the board chosen to?”
Stephanie Barnard
“I personally met Dr. Collins last spring when she toured the D97 schools. I was impressed with her willingness to meet personally with parents. I was hopeful that this was a sign of openness, and that we as parents would be heard. I had no idea how mistaken I was.
After over 2 hours of public comment at last month’s board meeting, Dr. Collins read from a prepared statement, in which she never even veered for one second to acknowledge more than 30 parents who spoke against these cuts.
I am deeply disturbed that those who sit behind the desks in the administration building are making decisions to cut classroom teachers before they trim the fat in their own building. This is wrong!” Teresa Shattuck
“This loss of three teachers is likely to affect academic achievement as the class sizes rise as high as 27 in primary grades and more classes with half from one grade level and half from another are implemented. The teacher cuts are shortsighted and were done prematurely…Dr. Collins and the board members heard many passionate and articulate speakers protesting these cuts. We were not heeded. This will affect the collaboration between the parents and the board and district administration. Is this the participatory process that Oak Park is known for?” Gail Fisher
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Comments from the March 8 meeting
“I’m very upset. I can’t believe they went to teacher cuts without looking at the half-a-million dollars that we’ve pointed out this evening that they could cut elsewhere.
I totally trust the teachers at our school to do what’s best for our school and to fight for us as they can. But it’s up to us parents too to say what we need to say and to get our opinions out there.”
Lisa Gaston
Hatch parent
“Equity can be maintained in many different ways. It doesn’t mean that everybody’s going to be the same. We do need to make sure that our resources are being used wisely and equitably across the district. We can’t have some schools that have extremely high classroom ratio where other schools are extremely low.”
Marcia Frank
Board member
“I’m not thrilled with this but we find ourselves in the position where this ratio exists. It’s not made up out of cloth. It was there when Longfellow got an additional teacher and nobody objected to it at that time. It is a policy and practice of the this board.”
Dan Burke
Board member
?#34;Complied by Terry Dean